Alice Sebold’s first novel, The Lovely Bones, is a thrilling yet emotionally sentimental fiction story. The story opens with the voice of fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon who tells of her rape and murder by her neighbor. The major thriller of the novel is knowing who has murdered Susie when everyone else does not. Alice Sebold does an outstanding job keeping her readers wanting more.

The book comes alive to the readers, keeping them forever interested. We get to see the point-of-view from the victim herself. We see Susie’s heaven and we follow her as she watches her family cope with her death. Sebold intrigues the readers to want to help the family find out who the killer was, because we know it was Mr. Harvey. These are just a few examples as to how Sebold puts extraordinary effort into her details.

Alice Sebold can relate to the book from a personal stand point. Sebold is a survivor of rape. Readers can almost visualize the murder scene due to the excellent expression and detail Sebold is able to share from her experience. The author writes: “As he kissed his wet lips down my face and neck and then began to shove his hand up my skirt, I wept.” From details such as that we are able to feel both Alice Sebold and Susie Salmon’s pain during their tragic moments.

Along with great detail, the author is able to keep a general audience at all times with appropriate language and wording throughout the novel. This allows readers to be able to continue reading without having to stop and question themselves, this is a very important detail when writing a book. Alice jumps from Heaven with Susie to Susie’s family on Earth. She uses transaction sentences to keep her readers allows following along for example: “My favorite part was how colored blocks were turquoise and orange, just like the blocks in Fairfax High.” Sebold uses transactions like this to keep her audience bouncing back and forth with the flow of the story. We are able to feel the grief of the Salmon family through Susie’s views from her Heaven.

In Conclusion, The Lovely Bones is an intriguing and heart filled novel. The author does an outstanding job on her first premier novel. Sebold makes the book come to life for her readers and keeps them interested. The author’s tragic rape incident in her own personal life left her with the ability to write such a detailed story of a young girl’s murder. Sebold is also able to stick to a general audience by using appropriate word choice and language. The author leaves her readers with sympathy in their hearts for the Salmon family, giving The Lovely Bones the title of a phenomenal best seller.